YOUR FAVORITE LOGO TV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

Meet the Queer Activists Bringing Books to LGBTQ Inmates in the U.K.

"[Books] can be even more needed for LGBTQ incarcerated people who may ... be more likely to experience isolation."

Being incarcerated is an unyielding experience for any person, but queer people in prison face a unique set of challenges. Massively overrepresented in the prison population, LGBTQ folks face higher rates of both mistreatment and sexual victimization by prison staff, according to a 2017 study in the American Journal of Public Health.

Transgender prisoners are particularly at risk, with trans women often being placed in male prisons and trans men in female prisons. Across the ocean, the recent news of HM Prison Downside in Sutton, England, introducing a segregated housing unit for trans women highlights the restrictions members of the LGBTQ community must deal with behind bars.

A number of transgender inmates in U.K. prisons have died by suicide with media reports alleging that at least one of the suicides was partly due to misgendering and deadnaming by prison staff. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, a shocking 47% of all black transgender people in the U.S. have been incarcerated at some point in their lives.

Due to the arduous conditions faced by LGBTQ people in prison, a collective of queer activists founded Books Beyond Bars, a project which provides books, zines, and educational materials to incarcerated LGBTQ people across the U.K.

After conversations with U.S.-based LGBT Books to Prisoners, the Manchester-based activists from Books Beyond Bars soon realized there was a clear need for a similar project in the U.K.

“Basically, we want to build and strengthen connections between LGBTQ people on the inside and communities on the outside, and provide people with access to knowledge and resources of their own choosing,” explains Felix McNulty, Books Beyond Bars volunteer and collective member.

The project advocates for restorative forms of justice and is actively working to reduce the impact of the prison system on queer people. By organizing letter-writing sessions and supplying educational documents, Books Beyond Bars hopes to give some level of control back to incarcerated LGBTQ people through access to sexuality-specific resources.

“At present we've sent book packages to people in four different prisons, and have just had contact from a fifth. It's in its early days still, we're hoping to reach more people by publicizing the collective in Inside Time [the national newspaper for prisoners and detainees], for example,” says Siobhan Reilly, a co-collective member and volunteer at Books Beyond Bars.

In the context of harsh punishment like solitary confinement, sexual violence, and extreme psychological distress, browsing through books may not seem like an adequate survival mechanism, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Reading in general can be a crucial way of coping with incarceration as it provides access to knowledge and also a kind of escape into the imagination. This can be even more needed for LGBTQ incarcerated people, who may, in some cases, be more likely to experience isolation,” McNulty tells NewNowNext.

All prisons in England and Wales are required by law to have a library and provide access for every prisoner in their care, no matter the crime. But the selection of books available is meager and often lacks publications that directly relate to LGBTQ issues, life, or history, with trans-related publications being especially hard to find.

“Even in major city libraries, the selection can still be relatively limited, so it would be very surprising if any existing prison libraries were even on par with this,” says Reilly.

When queer prisoners contact Books Beyond Bars, McNulty and other volunteers send back a form that lists different genres and themes, so they can best match the books in-stock to the person’s taste as closely as possible. Another, more discreet form is available that doesn’t include the Books Beyond Bars name nor questions about LGBTQ-specific content.

“So if people want to receive books from us, but don't want to out themselves, this form won't be conspicuous,” adds Reilly.

Books Beyond Bars tries to provide a diverse range of books to prisoners, but this is entirely dependent on what is donated to them. LGBTQ-themed books, both fiction and non-fiction, are unsurprisingly top of the lists from most queer prisoners, with requests of non-LGBTQ books, like dictionaries, hobby-related books, and activity books, also being asked for regularly.

Queer books offering affirming representations and stories that reflect inmates’ life experiences are valuable, but some prisoners prefer more mainstream books. “Not everyone wants to, or feels safe to, read specifically LGBTQ-related books, so we also send fiction and non-fiction of various kinds,” McNulty adds.

The activists at Books Beyond Bars also started a letter writing project for LGBTQ people in prison to establish solidarity and create ongoing pen pal connections.

“The letter- and card-writing events that we run are aimed at providing incarcerated people with ‘waves’ of support and a sense of community on the outside,” says McNulty.

In the year since the project started, generous donors have given countless books, as well as donations of money and other items from the Books Beyond Bars' Amazon wish list. The project has also held film evenings in Manchester, where guests could write messages of support for incarcerated LGBTQ people.

With access to books typically coming from family members, queer people who have been excommunicated from their families can find it more difficult than their heterosexual counterparts to get the resources they need.

“It’s still true for many LGBTQ people that relationships with family of origin can be difficult, non-affirming, or non-existent,” McNulty acknowledges. “For these people, connection with communities on the outside is even more important.”

Latest News